Pan Nalin's film, 'Angry Indian Goddesses', was the toast of TIFF
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 25, 2015)


Pan Nalin, whose first Hindi film, Angry Indian Goddesses bagged the first runner-up prize for the Grolsch People's Choice Award at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), couldn't be happier. Even though they lost to Room by a really narrow margin, the director of internationally acclaimed films like Samsara and Valley of Flowers admits that it was a big high to make an impact in a jungle of 300 movies featuring big Hollywood names like Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney on the red carpet, with a small-budget, India-rooted subject. It's a first for an Indian film in a category which has been dominated by American and British film wins.

"We went to Toronto with no expectations, just happy to be selected as a special presentation. We'd planned for five to six interviews, we ended up giving 120 to mainstream media. On the streets, people were calling out to the 'angry young goddesses', and that included my co-writer, casting director and associate Dilip Shankar and me," laughs Nalin, who went on to explain the concept of ardhangini (half man half woman) to his North American counterparts. "The most overwhelming reaction came from an American guy who walked out of a screening, asked me if he could give me a hug, quipped that he wished he could have left his d*** in the theatre and just walked away. I was so deeply touched."

The director recalls how he was the only guy in a class of nine girls at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Over the years, he's heard actresses ruing the fact that few made films that revolved around women. So then Dilip and he, with like-minded actresses like Tannishtha Chatterjee and Kalki Koechlin, decided to make one. And while brainstorming zeroed in on a female buddy film since that was a subject not explored on screen before despite there having been great films on bromance like Dil Chahta Hai, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, 3 Idiots and Delhi Belly to name a few.

The film was a revelation from the auditions itself when Nalin discovered that while actors were all about bodies and dialogue delivery, actresses had so much more to offer. "We auditioned 800 girls, 200 by Dilip and me personally. And we discovered that most of them could sing, dance, speak five languages fluently, swim and even ride. Rajshri Deshpande, one of the seven goddesses, has learnt Kathakali in Kerala and done three months of mountaineering in the Himalayas. Indian women are full of shakti and talent," he raves.

The film was shot in Goa because research threw up the fact that it is one of the safest destinations in India where women in groups can be left alone to party. And it's a bachelorette party that these goddesses meet for at Sarah-Jane Dias's Portuguese-styled family home. She's quit the world of advertising to return to her roots and pursue photography. She invites her friends over, among them a CEO from Bangalore, a struggling singer from Mumbai and a trophy wife from Delhi, to open a Pandora's box of surprises.

"The research also threw up that while Indian women are sexually harassed and oppressed, our country also had the longest-ruling woman Prime Minister in Indira Gandhi, several MPs and MLAs in Parliament, the maximum number of CEOs, the highest number of female activists, the first all-woman commercial flight and the first paramilitary women's force. "But despite this, I realised 10 minutes into a conversation with any woman, whether she was in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Delhi or Ahmedabad, that they are all angry about something. And I also realised that goddesses take on a ferocious avatar to create change, a new world order, so the title," smiles Nalin.

Encouraged by the appreciation at TIFF and the curious interest it has sparked back home, he is planning a pan-India release in November soon after the festivals of the goddesses. "This is the first time I'm making a film in Hindi and I want it playing in every neighbourhood theatre here. I want to prove to distributors and exhibitors that you don't need big stars to pull an audience, goddesses are enough. The film has already been acquired by all the Middle-Eastern countries and that's a high. I want women there to see our goddesses at play," he asserts.

Nalin's next film in English, the first Indo-New Zealand co-production, Beyond the Known World, is in post-production currently, and he is ready to kickstart his second Hindi film after this one releases. Quiz him on what it's about and he quips, tongue-in-cheek, "It's about insane Indian Gods and might just feature dozens of men."